7/28/2012 Picnic in the Park

Join us as we celebrate the first year of Friends of Glen Providence Park… with a picnic! We can’t think of of a more appropriate way to celebrate- picnics are a longstanding tradition in Glen Providence Park. So come join us- bring your stories and memories about the park, and kick back and have fun!

Picnic in the Park!

Glen Providence Park has been a popular picnic spot throughout its 76 year history. In the 1940’s, the park guard James Stokes built picnic tables for the park. In the 1950’s “members of several fraternities from the University of Pennsylvania enjoyed supper” in the park. A mid-century Red Arrow Trolley brochure includes a photograph of the sledding hill and suggests, “Pack a picnic basket and take the family to Glen Providence Park, end of Media Line, for a refreshing day.”

In August 1966 there was a “Melon Melee”, with wheelbarrow loads of watermelon “consumed by 200 boys and girls (and some ducks) at the annual picnic at Media’s Glen Providence Park.” Playground director Thomas R. Walters said the children “ate them until I thought watermelon would come out of their ears.” They also had a pie-eating contest!

So pack a picnic basket! Bring a lunch, and if you’d like, a dish to share. It might not be a bad idea to bring a picnic blanket, in case we run out of tables. We will provide popsicles, water ice, and watermelon, of course! Who knows, maybe it will be our first Annual Picnic- and for next year, we could stage the return of the pie-eating contest…

This postcard shows the old Park Guard House to the left, and a picnic table (possibly built by the Park Guard) under a tree to the right. It’s still a great hillside for a picnic, with several modern picnic tables!